Last night, 19 people were shot in Chicago; including a span of 30 minutes where 13 people were victims of gun violence. Here’s a description of one of the shootings:

Police say a drive-by shooting on Chicago’s South Side late Thursday wounded seven men and one woman ranging in age from 14 to 20 years. Two of the victims were taken to Comer Children’s Hospital. Most are in stable condition. Police say the 19-year-old woman wounded was shot in the arm while walking to work.

Twelve hours later, halfway across the country, a lone gunman opened fire in front of the Empire State Building. He shot 10 people and killed one. Details are sketchy but it appears the crime is the product of a disgruntled worker. He was also killed.

An interesting thing happened on Twitter as soon as the news of the New York shooting started to hit timelines. While New Yorkers were expressing shock and sadness, others were doing the whole “this happens in Chicago every day” bit. This doesn’t help anyone and is counterproductive. Comparing tragedies never goes anywhere. Loss of life is loss of life. It’s always tragic no matter how many or what the circumstances are.

Chicago Sun-Times

However, you’d have to be blind not to realize the self-destruction in America’s Third World has been largely ignored by the national media. There’s a simple answer for this: America’s capacity for compassion is trumped by its capacity for fear.

I remember being so frustrated in undergrad when the student body wouldn’t mention the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans then gather around the flagpole for the people that died during the 9/11 attacks. I absolutely know how Chicagoans feel.

But there’s a clear difference between Katrina/Chicago and the tragedies in New York or Aurora. While only a small sector of the country – most notably lower-income people of color – would fall victim to Katrina or the Chicago shootings, the random attacks in New York or Aurora could happen to anyone. We all go to the movies, fly airplanes or go to work. The thought of a gunman or terrorist attacking us while we’re going through our daily routines is scary as hell. But being caught in a situation of poverty, uninformed about a natural disaster or stuck in a neighborhood where bullets fly on the regular? Most of us, especially those with jobs in the media, can’t imagine being in those situations. There’s no fear, so there’s no need to pay attention to it.

So where does that leave the people in Chicago? All signs show them as being pretty hopeless right now. The shootings there may as well be happening a hemisphere away. Even though these are mostly kids being shot and killed there, the general public can’t relate. So again, we’re left with no answers about what to do to help the kids in Third World America. And they’ll be pushed even further to the back pages every time a group of people get shot doing something we do every day.

In the end, lives are lost and that’s all that matters. Whether in the Southside of Chicago or the Empire State Building, the victims should be treated with equal importance. Maybe then we’ll be able to work together to find an answer.

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Were a violent culture, what did you expect. Its disheartening tho that these shooters could be our neighbors, friends, families. Some homegrown terrorism shyt. Al qaedas laughng at us watching us explode from within

Let’s not attach the “lone gunman” theory to the NY shooting, because it only adds to the whole “nutjob”stigma that seems to come with these shootings. This is not an Aurora situation and shouldn’t be treated as such. So far, reports say he was a disgruntled former employee and was aiming primarily at one person (the other confirmed death). He is only responsible in part for the shootings, which is bad enough. But NYPD is also responsible for some of it, as they ended up shooting innocent bystanders while trying to put the shooter down (which they did). This was reported by the mayor. By the way, the Empire State Building had nothing to do with this, it just so happened that the shooting went down in its vicinity.

This is actually miniscule compared to what’s happened in Brooklyn this summer, but that never gets reported nationally, because that’s too far and “foreign” for the national media to cover, much like the Chicago shootings that happen every day it seems.

One of the girls in my office got off the bus across the Empire State Building right as the guy started shooting.
No one should have to see bullets fly around them and seeing people get hit, or worry that their vacation will lead to a father getting shot in front of their family.

the random attacks in New York or Aurora
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This absolutely breaks my fucking heart. Americans want to get all up in arms and make a stink about fucking edge cases. Yet shit that happens every fucking day gets swept under the rug. Anyone who doesnt see that this country is an oligarchy either isnt looking hard enough or doesnt want to see. The status quo has been maintained here for over 200 years with only a few minor hiccups (womens suffrage, civil rights movement). It disgusts me to see people in this country living in constant fear of not only their neighbors but also those in power (police, feds, etc) when we are the ones that put them in power. Yet our government and to a very, very large extent, our citizens sit here and talk shit about other countries and their human rights violations and so on. Thank goodness for everyday acts of kindness and social interaction on a smaller scale because without it i’d have lost faith in this country long, long ago.

Sorry about the anger, shit just gets to me sometimes and y’all are a great sounding board here.

The world ends when everyone dies. Perhaps you’d like to do your part by getting a saw’d off shotgun and getting to work? C’mon. There’s been violence since the dawn of time. People have been dying since from violence since the dawn of time. Hell ain’t Cain kill Abel?

so let me get this straight. guns anyone can buy almost any state and carry where ever the hell they want because it is their freedom. people are arguing why they need the right to buy guns at walmart with no restrictions. why is government cracking down on medical marijauna but not doing anything about this. republicans are pushing voter ID laws and all these other restrictions that makes it easier to buy guns than it would to vote. shit is messed up.